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NETSURFER SCIENCE
More Signal, Less Noise |
Volume 04, Issue 10 Tuesday, September 25, 2001 |
NETSURFER LINKS
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REVIEWERS' CHOICE
COMPUTING AND ENGINEERING 1945: http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/WTC_planecrash_empirestate010911.html Design: http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/12/wtc.architect.cnna/ ABC: http://more.abcnews.go.com/sections/scitech/DailyNews/wtc_towers_structure010911.html CNN: http://www.cnn.com/2001/COMMUNITY/09/13/rittenhouse.cnna/index.html BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1540000/1540044.stm Discovery.ca: http://discovery.ca/inc/demo.asp?Video=exn20010914-forensic-engineer.asx Sydney: http://www.civil.usyd.edu.au/wtc.htm Construction.com: http://www.enr.com/news/enrbld_091201a.asp&pid=7.1 Information about plans and operations is scarce, limited to what's already public and what's bound to become public. Three American aircraft carriers have been dispatched to staging areas: the Enterprise, the Theodore Roosevelt, and the Carl Vinson. The Navy outlines some of its fleet's technical details. The venerable Enterprise is the oldest, but not the broadest in the beam. Sites relating to each ship were drawing-room polite, schoolroom crisp, or locker-room rowdy. We're sticking with the science. The Federation of American Scientists describes carrier operations, including the take-off catapults, the meatball landing lights, and the ship's geography (what else can you call almost five acres of deck?). The transcript of a NOVA episode adds color commentary. And, the Navy has improved meatball technology. Naval Vessel Register: http://www.nvr.navy.mil/nvrships/NAME.HTM Fleet: http://www.chinfo.navy.mil/navpalib/ships/carriers/ Operations: http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/ship/cv.htm NOVA aboard: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/transcripts/2110gairc.html Better meatballs: http://www.lakehurst.navy.mil/nlweb/iflols.html Afghanistan is landlocked, so air transport, always important, is there a given. Planes apparently dispatched so far include B-1, F-14, F-15, and F16 fighters; E-3 AWACS; the B-52 and KC-135 transport and supply behemoths; and a couple or three battle-tested Sikorsky products. Boeing's pages are relatively generous with their information and include relevant military links. Jane's, of course, is in its element on matters of war. It's going to cost you to get the whole story (and a pretty penny, we might add), but you can still spend a lot of time, free, rummaging through the news items. They add appreciably to the narrower CNN fare. Be patient with the organization of Jane's site and you'll be rewarded richly. B-1B Lancer: http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/b1-lancer/ B-52 Stratofortress: http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/b52-strat/ E-3 AWACS: http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/infoelect/e3awacs/ F-14 Eagle: http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/f15/f15.htm F-15E: http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/F_15E_Strike_Eagle.html F-16: http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/F_16_Fighting_Falcon.html KC-135: http://www.boeing.com/defense-space/military/kc135-strat/ Blackhawk: http://www.sikorsky.com/programs/blackhawk/mh-60k.html Pave Low: http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/MH_53J_M_Pave_Low.html Jane's: http://www.janes.com/ It's likely that most Netsurfer readers have spent time on an airplane, so we have some intuitive appreciation of how large these beasts are. Still, seeing the numbers can give us insight into what sort of physics were at the root of the horrific images from September 11. Consider, for instance, that the World Trade Center towers were approximately 208 ft. long on any side. Then, consider the 156-ft. wingspan of a 767 - and that its length makes it almost square. There's some small consolation in calculating just how many passengers might have been aboard all the flights had the hijackers not been concerned about minimizing the number of live opponents they might face. NASA's site looks pretty basic at first blush, but following the links will give you a better than basic knowledge of how the systems in planes work to get and keep them aloft, and to get them to their destinations. 757: http://www.boeing.com/commercial/757family/ 767: http://www.boeing.com/commercial/767family/ Parts: http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/K-12/airplane/airplane.html Twenty years after the Empire State Building collision, the twin towers were designed to withstand other air accidents, from strikes by liners as large as 707s. In The Washington Post, a construction supervisor describes the emotions vested in the towers that made them much more than mere real estate; crews of the day signed steel beams as they went into place. One of the original architects notes that the smaller planes of 35 years ago didn't carry the fuel payload found in a 767 and speculates on the design principles that left the building standing when its base was bombed in 1993. In 1999, the Engineering News Record detailed some of the issues in the buildings' construction challenges. As crews clear the site, engineers warn that rubble might well be supporting the foundation walls, which may be under unsustainable stress. Notes one engineer, the Hudson River is only a few blocks away. Slurry walls and safety issues for search crews move even closer to the top of the agenda. Boston's Big Dig uses the same slurry wall technique that went into creating the Trade Center's foundations. The International Herald Tribune has a harrowing inventory of problems facing searchers, engineers, and investigators. Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A34000-2001Sep14.html Construction: http://www.enr.com/new/A0816.asp Slurry walls: http://www.bigdig.com/thtml/gw_sw.htm Conditions: http://www.iht.com/articles/33052.html Blast Evaluation for High-Risk Buildings The 1993 blast that killed six people, injured about 1000, and tore out part of the World Trade Center's garage was just one of the events that inspired engineers to reconsider risk evaluation and management for structures that might be targeted for destruction. This article from the EQE Review represents a very accessible discussion of the forces that act on buildings in a blast. For the most part, they're large, numerous, and cumulative. We were riveted by the progression. Figures and photos from the print edition are missing, but we'll all recognize what the authors are talking about.http://www.eqe.com/publications/revf94/blast.html If you're considering giving the stock market a hand, you might want to look into biometrics shares. Biometrics are the technologies used for electronic identification: fingerprint search algorithms, iris and retina scanners, facial recognition hardware and software, and so on. They're being considered as standard issue for secure airport areas and even to identify passengers. Most of the sites are commercial ones, so we'll suggest that a Google search might be in order for anyone wanting to investigate these technologies in detail. Don't be surprised, though, if there's not a lot of sharing going on among the developers. It's competitive to say the least. Still, we can point you to a few more general resources. Biometrics: http://homepage.ntlworld.com/avanti/ Biometric Consortium: http://www.biometrics.org/ Lay overview: http://www.zdnet.com/eweek/reviews/1027/27bioapp.html Accuracy and prices: http://www.zdnet.com/eweek/reviews/0324/24bio.html Hacktivism: Scribbling a Mustache on Saddam Hussein In addition to reports of real physical and emotional violence being visited on people of Middle Eastern, North African, or subcontinent extraction, and of varying faiths, there have been reports of attacks on the websites of these targeted groups. The vandalism includes defacement, denial of service attacks, and destruction of sites. The hacktivists might well be working at cross purposes with investigators who say that wiping out a terrorist site also eliminates or compromises possible leads. The National Infrastructure Protection Center has issued an advisory on the subject. The practice is not new by any means. Motives are often mixed, and practitioners can range from true believers to the just plain venal. It's commonplace enough to have inspired a thoughtful academic paper on cyberterrorism's role in influencing foreign policy.Report: http://www.cbsnews.com/now/story/0,1597,311985-412,00.shtml NIPC: http://www.nipc.gov/warnings/advisories/2001/01-020.htm Hacktivism central: http://hacktivism.openflows.org/ Golden age: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,15129,00.html Dead Cow: http://www.cultdeadcow.com/ Influencing: http://www.nautilus.org/info-policy/workshop/papers/denning.html Air Traffic Control and Black Boxes: What They Really Mean We take a lot of technology for granted, dropping it into our daily conversations in a general way without ever understanding its specifics. Air traffic control and airplane's black boxes are like that. Marshall Brain (yes, it's really his name), the man behind How Stuff Works, doesn't take technology for granted, and he explains both air traffic control and black boxes for us at his very smart site. Moderate technophiles might also be interested in the flight tracker that lets you check graphically the location, air speed, altitude, EDT and ETA, type of plane, and more for any flight you can identify. Technophiles with addictive tendencies may want to subscribe to the service.Air traffic: http://www.howstuffworks.com/air-traffic-control.htm Black boxes: http://www.howstuffworks.com/black-box.htm Flight Tracker: http://www.savewealth.com/travel/flighttracker/ MEDICINE, BIOLOGY AND ZOOLOGY Who'd Have Thought We'd Ever Hope for More Injured People? As we sent this issue to Netsurfer World Headquarters for publication, 6291 people were reported injured at the New York City site, most treated and released. The expected rush never arrived at New York hospitals. Authorities lament the relatively small number because it points inevitably to a longer list of fatalities. Burns make up a large proportion of the injuries. We've become better at helping patients survive third- and even fourth-degree burns in recent years. The greater the skin loss, in terms of area and depth, the greater our exposure to infection. Thus, grafting and artificial skins have a more critical purpose than merely the cosmetic one. Power-Graphs page shows that, while cardiac failure and shock take fewer lives than sepsis, they take them earlier. Many of the first people treated by medical and paramedical staff inhaled dust in the aftermath and, for a time, there was some concern about asbestos that might have escaped from the ruins. Health and Human Services says the concern about asbestos at the site is not borne out in its air tests. And, sooner and later, post-traumatic stress disorder will rear its now familiar, ever ugly, head.Burn care: http://www.burnsurgery.org/Betaweb/index.html Power-Graphs: http://www.powerpak.com/PowerGraphs/1999/mayh/severity.cfm Artificial skin: http://www.nigms.nih.gov/news/features/artificial_skin.html Cultured skin: http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/puo/bulletin/issue/199602/english/skin.htm Injuries: http://www.medscape.com/Medscape/Neurology/journal/2001/v03.n05/mn0919.kenn/mn0919.kenn-01.html Dust and debris: http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2001pres/20010916b.html Asbestos: http://www.hhs.gov/news/press/2001pres/20010916a.html PTSD: http://www.medscape.com/MedscapeWire/2001/09/medwire0913.disaster.html PTSD resources: http://www.ptsd.com/ PTSD background: http://www.aaets.org/arts/art1.htm Working side-by-side with, even in advance of, many of search personnel is a breed apart - dogs specially trained in recovery operations. Touchingly, despite the very serious nature of their work, the psychology behind the singular science of their training is based solidly in these beasties' enduring playfulness. Each discovery - joyous, heartbreaking, or grisly - earns a moment of play. Sophisticated search dogs and their handlers now specialize. Some canines seek out only forensic material quite apart from victims - blood, for instance. Cadaver dogs, surprisingly, can detect bodies underwater and remains long buried. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, as many as 300 dogs have attended at the Manhattan site. These Iron Dog animals are subject to all the same physical hazards that plague the human workers: particle inhalation, cuts and abrasions, bruising, fractures, eye irritation, hunger, dehydration, and fatigue. HHS protocol includes a veterinary staging area. SAR dog FAQ: http://www.mark9.org/faq/ Readiness guidelines: http://www.losalamos.org/LASAR/MC2/MC2.html Canine forensics: http://www.prusik.com/K9Forensic/ Cadaver dog: http://www.k9web.com/kennels/waggery/cadaver.html Vet care: http://www.os.dhhs.gov/news/press/2001pres/20010919.html ARCHEOLOGY AND PALEONTOLOGY Where Islamic History Intersects with Other Religions Islam, historically, has been a very tolerant religion. At a time when conquest was a way of life, Spain's Moorish conquerors allowed Christians and Jews to practice their faiths freely. Islam offered an enlightened life when most of Europe was struggling through the Medieval period. The Turks took Constantinople in the 15th century, but to this day scholars of Christianity can study the icons and history of Istanbul's Haghia Sophia. The Haghia Sophia was originally a Christian church, built in the 6th century, so it stands as an invaluable repository of history. After the Ottoman victory, the Orthodox church became an Islamic mosque. Unlike conquerors in the Americas, the Ottoman Turks and their successors preserved much of what they found in subjugated lands, including the Haghia Sophia, despite the ways in which it runs contrary to Islamic beliefs. Fifteen centuries after its construction and five centuries after its conversion, Christians can still study its wonders. Tolerance in Islam presents the text of a seminal lecture on the subject given in 1927.Moorish Spain: http://www.xmission.com/~dderhak/index/moors.htm Haghia Sophia: http://www.virtualistanbul.com/virtualistanbul/HaghiaSophia.htm Tolerance in Islam: http://users.erols.com/gmqm/toleran1.html ANTHROPOLOGY, SOCIOLOGY, ECONOMICS, AND GEOGRAPHY Propaganda and Critical Thinking Propaganda's nature is found in its origins and its intent - and, even then, its nature depends on its observers' own biases. Riefenstahl's Triumph of the Will, a school election poster, a Nike commercial, Mao's swim in the Yangtze, a national anthem. These are all examples of propaganda. And, as events develop over the next while, we can expect to see a lot more examples in the political and social context, testing our credulity and tolerances. These three sites offer excellent resources for evaluating images and messages. Propaganda techniques range from the blunt instrument of name-calling to the soothing subtleties of glittering generalities. The United States Department of the Army lays out the ones that it officially 'approves'. It wouldn't do, then, to include the most famous of all techniques: The Big Lie, Hitler's assertion in Mein Kampf that "the great mass of people will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one". Lotcaf's pages consider why propaganda's tools are so irresistible. The propaganda analysis pages go deeper, dissecting several of the techniques, presenting real examples, and mulling over what constitutes propaganda. It goes to Lasswell's definition, with which we can't quarrel.Propaganda analysis: http://carmen.artsci.washington.edu/propaganda/home.htm Propaganda techniques: http://www.freerepublic.com/forum/a360d496e0c97.htm Lotcaf: http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/lyndale/lotcaf/propg.htm One disturbing image gave way to another through September 11 and 12, but certainly among the most memorable in the wake of the attack was the broadcast of Palestinian celebrations. As shocking as it was, we wondered if the scene will be so much different in many places when news of the first retributive strike hits our TV screens. Astonishingly, people either blindly or willfully fail to know or accept the difference between their own neighbors and Osama bin Laden, Hamas, or the ruling Taliban. Timothy McVeigh or the Aryan Nations, for instance, are hardly representative of the United States. In truth, Islam is closely related to both Judaism and Christianity. Islam accepts both the Torah and the Gospels, for instance, as being divinely inspired. Jesus, Moses, and Abraham are revered, 'though Jesus isn't thought to be divine. Nor is Islam a monolithic religion. Just as doctrinal differences split Catholic and Protestant, matters of doctrine divide Islam. The Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance list dozens of religions, describing their history, tenets, practices and rituals, and significant celebration days. It also details religious conflict around the world. E-Conflict inventories ongoing conflicts, particularly those that are internecine. Tolerance.org is less a reference than a champion of diversity. Origins: http://www.pbs.org/visavis/BTVPages/Origins_of_Islam.html Religious tolerance: http://www.religioustolerance.com/ Intolerance elsewhere: http://www.religioustolerance.com/curr_war.htm E-Conflict: http://www.emulateme.com/ Tolerance.org: http://www.tolerance.org/ An intriguing artifact for research is Eric Darton's Living Archive. Last year, Darton wrote a book about the World Trade Center - Divided We Stand: A Biography of New York City's World Trade Center. As any good biographer should, he traces his subject's distant origins and considers the significance of its life. Taking a step beyond, though, he sought to reflect the Center's life and vitality with an archive of stories about the ongoing experiences of the building and its visitors. The core pages are fascinating, poetically written; line after line unwittingly offers possible epitaphs. The Eyeful Tower section alone is worth your time; a couple pages of historic documents are positively chilling. These pages will make you pause because of their seeming prescience. Other pages, with smaller stories, are like fond reminiscence. Divided We Stand: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/0465017274/netsurferdigest Living archive: http://ericdarton.net/index.html Reinsurance isn't exactly a scintillating subject. It's the practice of spreading the risk of a large pay-out among several insurers, in much the same way that Las Vegas oddsmakers might lay off bets against an overwhelming favorite to a series of smaller bookmakers. It's all quite legal, and even sensible. Indications are that large blocks of shares in companies reinsuring the World Trade Center were dumped in days just before the attacks. That adds profit to the list of motives - and is just more reason to add forensic finance to the arsenal of investigative weapons brought to bear on the inquiry. Murderous insider trading isn't really money laundering, but investigators certainly will be looking into suspicious activities that well and truly do amount to laundering. Tidbits: The Church of Rome frowned on insurance right up through the Renaissance because it deemed insurance to be a usurious wager. And, Lloyd's of London began life as Lloyd's Coffeehouse. Insurance bill: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/business/newsid_1554000/1554229.stm Reinsurance: http://www.llgm.com/articles.asp?article=38 Laundering: http://www.oecd.org/fatf/ Lloyd's: http://www.coffee.com.au/coffee_lloyds.htm New York City and the eastern seaboard are nothing if not resilient. Whether it's hurricanes or shipping disasters, people draw what lessons there are and then get on with what has to be done. Among the more bizarre disasters that have hit New York City are the electrical blackouts that really did bring it grinding to a halt. At The Blackout History Project, visitors share their experiences in the blackouts of 1965 and 1977. We don't want to trivialize either event by trying to compare their scopes, but in many ways the events in Washington and New York made us think of the London Blitz. Most significantly, it was the spirit that was reminiscent. Rather than terrorizing either population, both campaigns galvanized them. We see people making changes to the way they will need to get on with their lives - but get on with them they will. Blackouts: http://sloan.stanford.edu/Blackout/ Blitz exhibit: http://www.museum-london.org.uk/MOLsite/exhibits/blitz/intro.html History Place: http://www.historyplace.com/worldwar2/timeline/about-blitz.htm An interesting element in image-making - in propaganda - is the choice of names for military operations. In the long history of war, it's a relatively new development. But, there's a definite psychology to it. Who wouldn't be fortified by Operation Overlord? Unfortunately, not every military commander really grasped the importance of the name. Operation Infinite Justice doesn't exactly fall trippingly from the tongue - but it gets the job done. http://carlisle-www.army.mil/usawc/Parameters/1995/sieminsk.htm As might be expected, CNN's financial network offered the most integrated coverage of the economic effects of the attacks. Analysis is complicated by conditions before September 11, when America's economic engine was already sputtering. The markets and consumer confidence are down, but there's some sense that both could stabilize or even recover when the nature of the new world becomes clearer. CNNfn columnist Jason Zweig looks to history for answers. We're not sure that his precedents are entirely on point, but he thinks they are, and that they augur recovery. The Economist offers the view from offshore. CNNfn: http://cnnfn.cnn.com/news/specials/economic_toll/ Zweig: http://cnnfn.cnn.com/2001/09/21/investing/zweig/ Economist: http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=795651 News agents prefer, right or wrong, to present the simplest face in the shortest time, so deeper story often takes a backseat to the salacious, the violent, and the familiar. Many people are hard pressed to understand how the cultures and politics of Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Iraq, Libya, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Israel, and the United States fit together in all of this. We can't distill it any more effectively than anyone else, but we can point you to a handful of admirable resources that acknowledge the complexities. For a comprehensive overview of the Middle East, including Afghanistan, North Africa, and the Palestinian Authority, explore the resources at The University of Texas at Austin's Center for Middle Eastern Studies. We hear too little of lives lived everyday in Arab states. Arabic News obviously focuses on the newsworthy, but it also gives voice to ordinary people who just want to get on with living safe and meaningful lives. The Gulf War Debriefing Book and PBS bring hindsight to bear on the realtime televised war that may have hardened bin Laden's politics. Middle Eastern Studies: http://menic.utexas.edu/menic.html News: http://www.arabicnews.com/ Debriefing: http://www.leyden.com/gulfwar/index.html PBS: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/thome.html Landmarks and Historical Markers Compared to the inexplicable loss of life, the loss of property is usually only a footnote. But, the targets of the September 11 attack are significant for their symbolic value. Still, relatively few of us have ever set foot in either place. The news networks' geography lessons were sorely needed and both locales have virtual tours. The Pentagon's, in RealPlayer format, runs 24 minutes in total, although you can elect to complete it in smaller sections. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, owner of the World Trade Center, gives us a single uncluttered site map with a few facts about the complex and each of the other buildings that made up the center. Skyscraper.org makes some observations on the innovations that characterized the planning and construction. Great Buildings houses photographs and some cursory structural details. Its most interesting content is the commentary by the architect and his associates. In its planning and standing, the center held a significance far beyond that of just another skyscraper. In its falling, it's assumed an entirely unique identity that no one could have foreseen.Pentagon: http://www.defenselink.mil/pubs/pentagon/ Port Authority: http://www.panynj.gov/wtc/wtccomplex.htm Great buildings: http://www.greatbuildings.com/buildings/World_Trade_Center.html If the organization and nature of Rome's legions is of scientific interest now, there must be scientific value in understanding something of America's legions today. Although all indications are that the coming conflict won't be a conventional one by any standards, some conventional methods and forces will be part of the response, both overtly and covertly. The Army Rangers, Green Berets, Navy SEALS, the shadowy Delta Force, and Special Operations Units have been named specifically. That's not to give short shrift to the regular forces, who will no doubt play a significant role at the outset of this new alternately Hot and Cold War. SpecOps: http://www.af.mil/news/factsheets/Air_Force_Special_Operations.html Rangers: http://www.grunts.net/army/rangers.html SEALs: http://www.grunts.net/navy/seals.html Berets: http://www.sfalx.com/ Overview: http://www.specialoperations.com/units/Default.htm |
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