from the editor's desk

The real climate threat: global cooling

Lee_Teschler — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:42:00 GMT

Interesting piece in Daily Tech about the lack of sunspot activity. The last time this happened, the earth experienced a mini ice age.

http://www.dailytech.com/Sun+Makes+History+First+Spotless+Month+in+a+Century/article12823.htm

more on ethanol -- small suppliers are toast

Lee_Teschler — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 12:14:00 GMT

Futures Magazine reports that a significant number of smaller ethanol plants have recently filed for bankruptcy or been scrapped before completion, thanks to rising corn and energy prices. Apparantly part of the problem is that farmers contracted to feedstock can't really do it:

http://futuresmag.com/cms/Futures/Monthly%20Issues/Issues/2008/08/Editorial/Departments/Trendlines/Trendlines-Ethanol?searchfor=shake-out%20in%20ethanol

Something to look forward to? China likely surpasses U.S. in manufacturing next year

Lee_Teschler — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 17:09:00 GMT

Well, it was bound to happen sometime the way things are going. Now it looks as though it will happen next year, according to this story from MarketWatch.com. Here is a link to the full story:

http://www.marketwatch.com/news/story/china-top-us-manufacturing-2009/story.aspx?guid={46448549-CE99-4D28-8325-9CB13812C55C}

China set to surpass U.S. as top manufacturer

NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- China is forecast to surpass the United States as the world's leading manufacturer in nominal dollar terms next year, earlier than expected, as the U.S. economy slows down and China's continues to grow at unprecedented rates, according to consulting firm Global Insight.

The nominal value of U.S. manufacturing weakened somewhat sharply in 2007, and despite the outlook for modest recovery in the coming years, China will likely gain the largest share in global manufacturing as early as 2009, Global Insight said in a report released Tuesday.

"The basic reason [for China closing the gap] is that growth in the U.S. economy has essentially been zero over the last year and will continue to struggle over the next year," said Nariman Behravesh, chief economist at Global Insight.

"We know that China is a big manufacturing giant now," Behravesh said in an interview with MarketWatch. "What this study suggests is that it will continue to play an increasingly larger role" in the world economy.

Measured in real value-added terms, China's share in global manufacturing is forecast to overtake that of the U.S. by 2016-2017, boosted by rapid gains in market share of textiles, basic metals, computer equipment and mineral product manufacturing, according to Global Insight.

However, the U.S. will continue to lead in certain high-value industries, such as aerospace, pharmaceuticals and specialized equipment.

The manufacturing sector accounts for only 12.5% of gross domestic product in the U.S., while it makes up 36% of the Chinese economy. Manufacturing as a share of the U.S. economy has been declining for decades, with the service sector enjoying a much more dominant role.

top US export: Waste paper

Lee_Teschler — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 15:02:00 GMT

Manufacturing & Technology News ran an interesting item recently. They collected information about the top US imports and exports. It turns out our number-one export by volume is waste paper. Of course, this is nothing new. Waste paper has been our top export for some time. Also interesting is their list of top importers. You can find the whole article here:

http://www.manufacturingnews.com/news/08/0731/PIERS.html

And here are the two lists:

Top 50 U.S. Importers Via Ocean Container Transport -- 2007

As measured in 20-foot-equivalent container units or TEUs

The first number listed for each company is the number of TEUs imported in 2007, followed by 2004 and 2002. NR means the company was not on the top 100 list for that year. SOURCE: Journal of Commerce and the Port Import/Export Reporting Service (PIERS).

1. Wal-Mart Stores, retail, 720,000, 576,000, 291,900
2. Target Corp., retail, 435,000 202,700, 173,100
3. The Home Depot, retail, 365,300, 301,200, 182,000
4. Sears (includes K-Mart), retail, 248,600, 186,000, 60,400
5. Dole Food, food, 223,200, 164,100, 142,900
6. Costco Wholesale, retail, 183,800, 66,400, 19,382
7. Lowes Cos., retail, 182,100, 100,000, 82,900
8. LG Group, conglomerate, 130,000, 43,300, 33,500
9. Philips Electronics, electronics, 127,200, 27,200, 22,000
10. Chiquita Brands Intl., food, 116,300, 115,600, 103,200
11. General Electric, conglomerate, 112,900, 51,800, 48,500
12. Ashley Furniture Inds., furniture, 104,700, 69,800, 45,200
13. Heineken USA, beverages, 104,300, 83,400, 75,000
14. Ikea Intl., retail, 102,000, 100,000, 44,700
15. Jarden Corp., appliances, 74,700, 21,800, 14,600
16. Red Bull, beverages, 72,500, 20,400, NR
17. JC Penny Corp. 68,400, 45,000, NR
18. Whirlpool, appliances, 67,300, 26,800, NR
19. Canon, computers, 66,400, 26,200, 220,000
20. Nike, footwear & apparel, 62,700, 47,900, 38,700
21. Williams Sonoma, retail, 62,400, 50,000, 19,200
22. Gap Stores, retail, 59,300, 14,800, 12,000
23. Toyota Tsusho America, autos, 58,800, 52,000, 45,000
24. Bridgestone Americas, tires, 52,300, 42,500, 26,800
25. Dollar General, retail, 51,000, 40,000, NR
26. Samsung, electronics, 50,800, 52,800, 46,200
27. Pier 1 Imports, retail, 49,600, 48,100, 46,700
28. Mattel, toys, 48,900, 49,300, 43,700
29. Sony Corp., conglomerate, 46,900, 47,100, 40,000
30. Big Lots, liquidator-retail, 46,600, 36,300, 45,800
31. Daimler AG, autos, 46,500, 14,600, 14,200
32. Family Dollar Stores, retail, 44,600, 19,300, 10,000
33. Panasonic Corp., electronics, 43,300, 52,100, 41,500
34. Furniture Brands Intl., furniture, 42,700, NR, NR
35. Kohl's Corp., retail, 42,400, NR, NR
36. Nestle, food & beverages, 40,400, 28,500, 14,300
37. Dorel Industries, furniture, 39,900, 28,700, NR
38. Michelin, tires & rubber, 38,700, 46,100, 34,500
39. Staples, retail, 32,800, 13,200, NR
40. Yamaha, transportation mfg., 32,000, 27,300, 24,600
41. Del Monte Foods, food, 32,000, 32,400, 12,600
42. Nissan North America, autos, 31,800, 27,700, 16,500
43. American Honda, autos, 30,900, 10,300, 46,200
44. Michaels Stores, retail, 30,600, 27,100, 14,600
45. Hewlett-Packard, computers, 29,700, NR, NR
46. Coaster of America, furniture, 29,500, 13,300, NR
47. Hankook Tire Americas, tires, 28,800, 20,400, NR
48. CVS Corp., retail, 28,000, 10,200, 16,000
49. BMW, autos, 27,400, 14,200, 14,000
50. Rooms to Go, retail, 27,200, 24,200, 19,800

Top 100 U.S. Exporters Via Ocean Container Transport -- 2007

As measured in 20-foot-equivalent container units or TEUs The first number is the number of TEUs exported in 2007, followed by TEUs exported in 2004 and 2002. NR means the company was not on the list of top 100 for that year. SOURCE: Journal of Commerce and the Port Import/Export Reporting Service.

1. American Chung Nam, wastepaper, 211,300, 201,100, 156,500
2. Weyerhaeuser, forest products/paper, 165,800, 154,900 95,600
3. Cargill, food, 123,800, 80,600 51,200
4. Koch Industries, paper, 123,400, 29,100, NR
5. International Paper, paper, 100,900, 42,700, 50,100
6. Dow Chemical, chemicals, 100,000, 64,700, 52,400
7. DuPont, chemicals, 93,100, 123,000, 104,000
8. MeadWestvaco, paper, 77,900, 66,800, 59,000
9. P&G, consumer products, 73,800, 54,200,48,000
10. Archer Daniels Midland, food, 73,300, 32,300, 17,700
11. Potential Industries, wastepaper, 70,800, 22,300, 11,500
12. Newport CH Intl., paper, steel recyclables, 69,700, NR, NR
13. Sims Metal Mgmt., metals, recyclables, 69,600, NR, NR
14. Cedarwood-Young, wastepaper, 64,900, 38,600, 21,000
15. CGB Enterprises, agriculture, 57,500, NR, NR
16. ExxonMobil Chemical, chemicals, 56,500, 44,300, 28,700
17. Cellmark Group, paper, 54,200, 56,700, 45,100
18. JC Horizon, waste paper, 53,000, 28,700, 25,400
19. BASF, chemicals, 52,500, 50,200, 38,500
20. Mega Fiber, waste paper, 44,300, NR, NR
21. Denison Intl., recycled paper, 43,400, NR, NR
22. DaimlerAG, autos, 41,700, 50,100, 47,000
23. General Electric, conglomerate, 41,200, 50,000, 44,400
24. Toyota Tsusho, autos/parts, 40,900, 28,100, 13,100
25. Allenberg Cotton, cotton, 39,800, 45,900, 21,200
26. AbitibiBowater, paper, 39,000, 18,900, 9,300
27. Caterpillar, machinery, 37,300,. 23,500, 19,200
28. Wal-Mart Stores, retail, 36,400, NR, NR
29. Rayonier, paper & forest products, 35,500, 31,700, 26,900
30. Mitsui, conglomerate, 34,900, 24,300, 24,300
31. Eastman Chemical, chemicals, 34,800, 37,900, 21,500
32. Staple Cotton Coop. Assn., 33,200, NR, NR
33. Schoular Co., foodstuffs, 33,100, NR, NR
34. Shintech, chemicals, 32,900, 22,300, 29,500
35. Yao Yang Enterprises, wastepaper, 32,700, 29,400, 20,600
36. Sino Paper, recycled paper, 32,300, NR, NR
37. Tyson Foods, food, 31,300, 19,600, 44,100
38. Itochu Specialty Chemicals, chemicals, 30,900, 26,700, NR
39. Rio Tinto America, minerals, 28,900, 18,500, NR
40. Kimberly Clark, consumer goods, 28,400, 23,900, NR
40. Delong, animal feed, 28,400, NR, NR
40. International Forest Products, paper, 28,400, 20,000, NR
43. 3M, chemicals, 28,300, 16,800, 14,500
44. Goodyear Tire & Rubber, tires, 27,300, 21,600, 19,000
44. Dunavant Enterprises, cotton, 27,300, 32,600, 22,700
46. Paul Reinhart, cotton, 27,000, NR, NR
47. Ford Motor, autos, 26,800, 30,200, 32,300
47. Mills Brothers Intl., food/grain, 26,800, 17,900, NR
49. Fruit of the Loom, textiles, 26,300, 16,900, NR
50. ConAgra Foods, food, 25,900, 27,400, 42,200

If US science education is so bad, why are these guys so good?

Lee_Teschler — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 14:15:00 GMT

U.S. Physics Team 'Brings Home the Gold' (and a Silver) From International Competition

Libraries Medical News		Keywords STUDENT, PHYSICS, OLYMPIC
Contact Information Available for logged-in reporters only
Description he 2008 U.S. Physics Team returns home triumphant this week, having earned four gold medals and a silver medal at the International Physics Olympiad held in Hanoi in Vietnam.

Newswise — The 2008 U.S. Physics Team returns home triumphant this week, having earned four gold medals and a silver medal at the International Physics Olympiad held in Hanoi in Vietnam. Only the Chinese mainland and Taiwan, who tied for first, ranked higher than the U.S. team, which placed second along with South Korea and India.

The U.S. Physics Team’s gold medalists are:
Tucker Chan, Princeton High School, Princeton, NJ;
Danny Zhu, Stuyvesant High School, New York, NY;
Edward Gan, Montgomery Blair High School, Silver Spring, MD;
Joshua Oreman, Harvard Westlake School, North Hollywood, CA;
and its silver medalist is Rui Hu, The Charter School of Wilmington, DE.

Chan, Zhu, and Hu graduated from high school this past spring; Gan and Oreman have one more year to go.

The students were selected in June after a two-phase national contest and a ten-day training camp, conducted by coaches chosen by the American Association of Physics Teachers in College Park, MD.

Photos and student biographies are at http://www.aapt.org/olympiad2008/team.cfm?Winners=1 There is an online blog of the students' adventures since April at http://www.aapt.org

The international competition over, these students look toward a bright future. “Here is a side of America to celebrate,” said Charles Holbrow, executive officer of the American Association of Physics Teachers. “Congratulations to the US Physics Team and their coaches. We should all be proud of these talented young people. And with the rest of the world, we should admire the achievements of all the Physics Olympiad participants. The sheer intellectual pleasure that radiates with youthful energy from their work together is a delight to behold.”

The five-member team was sponsored by the U.S. physics community. The contest and the students are supported with funds from ten professional societies: American Physical Society, The American Association of Physics Teachers, American Geophysical Union, The Society of Rheology, American Astronomical Society, American Acoustical Society, American Association of Physcists in Medicine, American Crystallographic Association, the AVS, and the Optical Society of America, which contributed one of the questions used on a selection exam.

About the Olympiad
The U.S. Physics Olympiad Program is a joint initiative of AAPT and AIP. AAPT began the program in 1986 to promote and demonstrate academic excellence. The International Olympiad is a nine-day competition among pre-university students from more than 80 nations.

About AAPT
AAPT is the leading organization for physics educators, with more than 11,000 members worldwide. The mission is to advance the greater good through physics education. It provides members with many opportunities for professional development, communication, and student enrichment. AAPT was founded in 1930 and is headquartered in the American Center for Physics in College Park, Maryland.

video: rocket-powered plane takes off

Lee_Teschler — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:36:00 GMT

This short video shot at the experimental aircraft get-together in Oshkosh gives you an idea of what the planes in the Rocket Racing League are going to look like and how they'll perform.

http://tinyurl.com/6hlat7

video: the flying jet pack

Lee_Teschler — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 12:26:00 GMT

Well, jet pack is a misnomer. This is actually powered by a piston engine which drives two ducted fans. It is a little like taking the ducted fan UAV that Honeywell came up with (you can see a video of that here: http://machinedesign.com/Video/714/72766/HoneywellsHoveringUAV.aspx)

and upsizing it to fly a human. The demo was filmed at the recent experimental aircraft get-together at Oshkosh.

http://tinyurl.com/66dmay

news flash: girls are as good as boys when it comes to math

Lee_Teschler — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 12:03:00 GMT

If women aren't going into technology and science career fields, it is not because they lack math apptitude. New research finds no difference between the average math scores of boys and girls in the grades 2 through 11. You can find a link to the study here, along with some interesting commentary on it at the Chronicle of Higher Education:

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3191/girls-as-good-as-boys-at-math-study-finds?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

American Physical Society: many members don't believe in human-induced global warming

Lee_Teschler — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 13:51:00 GMT

Who says the issue of man-made global warming has been settled? The journal Physics & Society just published a debate on the subject because, according to the editor,

There is a considerable presence within the scientific community of people who do not agree with the IPCC conclusion that anthropogenic CO₂ emissions are very probably likely to be primarily responsible for the global warming that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution. Since the correctness or fallacy of that conclusion has immense implications for public policy and for the future of the biosphere, we thought it appropriate to present a debate within the pages of P&S concerning that conclusion.

You can see the rest of the editor's comments here:

http://www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletters/200807/editor.cfm

One of the conclusions found in the Journal paper called "Climate Sensitivity Reconsidered" is particularly interesting:

In short, we must get the science right, or we shall get the policy wrong. If the concluding equation in this analysis (Eqn. 30) is correct, the IPCC’s estimates of climate sensitivity must have been very much exaggerated. There may, therefore, be a good reason why, contrary to the projections of the models on which the IPCC relies, temperatures have not risen for a decade and have been falling since the phase-transition in global temperature trends that occurred in late 2001.

That paper can be found here: http://www.aps.org/units/fps/newsletters/200807/monckton.cfm

Another interesting tidbit from the article: In the past 70 years the Sun was more active than at almost any other time in the past 11,400 years ... Mars, Jupiter, Neptune ’s largest moon, and Pluto all warmed at the same time as Earth.

How to cheat on exams, courtesy of youtube

Lee_Teschler — Mon, 14 Jul 2008 12:06:00 GMT

What ever happened to just scribbling formulas on the palm of your hand? The YouTube clip is interesting and so is the discussion that follows.

http://chronicle.com/wiredcampus/article/3160/students-show-how-to-cheat-via-youtube?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en

You, too, can move Stonehenge-sized pillars -

Lee_Teschler — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 11:15:00 GMT

When researchers were devising their complicated theories about how ancient Britons built Stonehenge, apparently they forgot to consult today's construction workers. It turns out erecting Stonehenge's pillars may not have involved nearly as much effort or as many people as researchers have supposed. That's the take-away from this video of a Michigan construction worker who, by himself, moves around multi-ton concrete pillars and is erecting his own version of Stonehenge to prove his point that the whole thing was well within the capabilities of a few ancients.

http://j-walkblog.com/index.php?/weblog/posts/moving_big_rocks

Don't let this happen to you: Toyota engineer works self to death

Lee_Teschler — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 16:15:00 GMT

This is all over the Web but here is a link to the story if you haven't seen it. The chief engineer for the Camry hybrid died of a heart attack which was eventually ruled to be caused by overwork, poor guy.

For those unfamiliar with the Toyota method of product development, the chief engineer on the project is responsible for the ultimate success or failure of the effort and is under a lot of pressure. The moral of the story: stress can kill.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080709/ap_on_bi_ge/japan_overwork_death

interesting use of hydraulics - trabant changes into an el camino

Lee_Teschler — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 15:16:00 GMT

Done as an artistic piece, this "trabantimino" extends itself via hydraulics to change from an east german trabant to an american muscle car. Of course, it carries a V8 engine -- no amount of transformer action can change a 26-hp trabant engine into a small block chevy. Unfortunately, the video doesn't really show all that much of the underlying technology.

http://mywikibiz.com/Liz_Cohen

when an F-16 flies within 10 ft of private prop plane

Lee_Teschler — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 12:14:00 GMT

The link below takes you to an audio/video clip showing the ATC radar screen readout and the radio exchange that happened when a private pilot minding his own business got buzzed by an F-16 pilot. The private pilot is obviously hopping mad. He claims the F-16 came within 10 feet of him and did so on purpose. The clip, from AVwebBIZ, goes on to say the F-16 pilot got reprimanded for this little stunt.

http://www.avweb.com/avwebflash/exclusivevids/ExclusiveVideo_F16InterceptsJetTurboprop_MOA_198263-1.html

Finally some sanity about high school GPAs

Lee_Teschler — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 12:08:00 GMT

I always thought it was a little screwy that the grade I got in a high school typing class counted as much as my grade in precalculus. Looks like I wasn't the only one with this idea. Texas is apparently going to fold course difficulty into the calculation of high school GPAs. The move is quite controversial judging by the comments posted for this item in the Chronicle of Higher Education.

http://chronicle.com/news/article/4766/recalculation-of-high-school-gpas-sows-confusion-in-texas?utm_source=at&utm_medium=en