911 troofers pop up on an engineering list again

Here’s an exchange from an engineering mail list.

Yes and what about WTC7? There was no airplane attack on that 47 story
building and it went down in the classic controlled demolition style!
You should not need more than one of these wakeup “Aha’s” to doubt the whole
official story!
Its a question of honor for engineers to be above the unwitting when it
comes to the manipulation dosed out to the masses!

Another engineer posted this nicely done response.

I was once very concerned with the facts about WTC7

Now, I have seen a large body of evidence that convinces me the building WAS
hit very hard by one of the towers on the side opposite the standard
pictures you are shown and was about to come down with or with out any
fires. The fires were also NOT minor, but from the outside, may have
appeared to be so.

http://www.debunking911.com/pull.htm is a very good site with most of the
facts.

I responded with this comment.

Good reference …, another one I like for the Larry Silverstein “Pull it”
quote is:
http://wtc7lies.googlepages.com/larrysilverstein%27s%22pullit%22quote

I expect there will be an increase in the conspiracy theories about WTC 7
over the next few months. The draft of the NIST WTC 7 report is due out this
July and the final report should come this fall. Once the report is out, it
will be much harder to get people on board with the conspiracy theories. Of
course the 9/11 conspiracy theorists will never go away, recently I stumbled
across a new conspiracy theory for the President Lincoln assassination,
sigh.

The original nutcase responded with this diatribe [Bold emphasis mine].

Im frightened by the prevalence of people that take any shortcut to thinking
for themselves, people that overcome their doubts because of brown peer
pressure
, and people that buy into the stereotypes projected by the
liberally corporate media that has replaced government that paints humans
brave enough to speak up with scarewords like ‘conspiracy loons’ and then
takes you to lala land with false moonlandings alien ufo coverups, etc. …
The average beer bozo then is distracted enough to take the bait and go on
about Lincoln, Kennedy and you name it whatever far from the issue at hand!
Fascism!
Hey I reviewed it again today who can argue it more bullet prove and
impartial then ‘Architects and Engineers for 911 truth’ with “How The Towers
Fell”
Watch it if you are ready to know the Matrix!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3118021782753292874

Wow this guy is not just a 911 Troofer but also a bigoted racist. Two bad tastes that combined make me taste vomit. Who can argue with a group of conspiracy minded architects with no experience in skyscraper engineering, demolition and fire fighting? Everyone with a brain in their head.

Good stuff from the blogs I read and an admin note

First the administration note, do to blog spam driving me nuts I’ve decided to close the comments on old posts that attract blog spam. If you encounter an older post with closed comments that you would like to contribute to, send me an email using the address that is at the end of every page at my main site. Assuming your contribution is relevant I’ll manually add it to the comments of the post for you. If it’s irrelevant I’ll reply explaining why I am not posting the comment.

Now for the good reads from the blogs I read:

Blake has posted an excellent round-up of the real discrimination going on in the ridiculous ID/Creationism vs. Science non-debate. Science After Sunclipse » Creation, Power and Violence

I mentioned it in previous post but now the NCSE has fully launched their Expelled Exposed web site. Check it out for the excellent information on the topic.

Bob’s post this week is a must read for anyone involved in hiring IT consultants, The Truth About IT Consultants.

Via Mark from the Denialism blog I wound up at this three part series, Contrary imaginations. – By Daniel Engber – Slate Magazine.

And last but not least, Tim’s post Scientists 2, Teens 0, Journalists -2, points out the two silly reports this week trying to make it seem like kids are smarter than adult scientists. Please people, join the reality based community and keep your rational thought processes in place. Contrary to what TV wants you to believe, it is extremely rare for a child to make a useful contribution to the advancement of knowledge. In fact other than Emily Rosa I can’t think of a single case and her contribution was not a giant breakthrough on a complex topic just a bright child pointing out that some of adults are too easily falling for magic tricks and thinking they are real.

DLL Help Database Search

Microsoft has put a DLL Help Database up on the Help and Support site. This is a really handy way to get information on DLL’s and EXE’s that you aren’t familiar with but may be a normal part of Windows. Previously I would use a Google search to find this kind of information with highly variable results. Having an authoritative database from the vendor will be a huge time saver.

Hat tip to IntelliAdmin.com.

An Engineer's Logical Disconnect

This passed by me on an email list and frankly I’m not shocked to see this particular logical disconnect. (Emphasis mine)

I once had a vacation canceled because all 150 of the high tech switching power supplies that had been 100% qualified at 50C for 24 hours were shipped to the integrator where all 150 failed spectacularly near simultaneously after 72 hours at 40C.

The fault was an opto isolator in the current feedback path. It was a an expensive full mil spec part specified for 5000V RMS AC, but carried no DC rating. At 500VDC …

This was a supply design that had been rigorously reviewed and subjected to extreme testing…

That is NOT a rigorous review when you don’t pay attention to the specifications for a part in your design! Sadly I’ve encountered these kinds of problems far too many times in the past 25 years. It seems to be a common problem that engineers will say they’ve made a careful review of a design and when I review the design I find they either failed to read or ignored a components specification. I’ve seen this exact mistake on switch applications where AC vs. DC operational differences are missed or ignored. IME, a more commonly ignored specification is component operating temperature range, it seems many people think that all electric components have no lower limit on operating temperature, RTFM!

RoHS and Tin Whiskers

The latest edition of The Embedded Muse newsletter from The Ganssle Group has a good summary with a few links about this topic.

The EU’s RoHS standards have caused a wholesale retreat from the use of lead in solder. While their intentions are noble, the electronics industry is likely to suffer mightily since alternative solders spontaneously grow tin whiskers that can, and have, create short circuits.

This problem is actually a bit of a blessing for manufacturers with short warranties (< 2 years). It can force more rapid replacement/upgrade cycles yielding more sales dollars.

Back in the early 1990’s there was bill before the US Congress to force removal of lead from electronic solder in the US. The goal of the bill was to reduce lead exposure for children. The EIA and other organizations pointed out to the Congress that lead in children had long ago been traced to other sources, not electronics. The Congress rightly dropped the idea when they realized that lead from electronic circuits was only likely to get into children whose parents allow them to suck on electronic circuit boards. Now the EU has these RoHS regulations and if US manufactures want to sell to EU countries they are supposed to move to lead free solder.

I encourage every embedded systems engineer to head over and sign up for a free subscription to The Embedded Muse newsletter, a great source of embedded systems news and information delivered free to your inbox.

Lead free solder and tin whisker links:
NASA Goddard Tin Whisker Homepage
Roll back the lead-free initiative: 12 ROHS myths
Pushback
Pb-Free.com
THAT Corporation Links to Lead Free Information

FCC issues $6 mil in fines against TV manufacturers and retailers

This week the FCC has taken action against television manufacturers and retailers for violating the rules regarding DTV and V-chip regulations.

From the FCC news summary:

The Commission’s DTV- related enforcement efforts have focused on protecting consumers from unknowingly buying televisions that will not allow consumers to enjoy the full benefits of the digital transition. The orders demonstrate the Commission’s commitment to strong enforcement in promoting the successful transition to digital television.

Here are links to the individual FCC actions:

Audiovox Corporation

Best Buy Co., Inc.

Circuit City

CompUSA

Fry’s Electronics

LG Electronics Inc.

Panasonic Corporation of North America

Philips Consumer Electronics North America

Polaroid Corporation

Precor Incorporated

Proview Technology

SANYO

Sears and Kmart

Syntax-Brillian

Target Corporation

Vizio, Inc.

Wal-Mart

Westinghouse Digital Electronics

 

Monty Hall Problems

John Tierney has published an article in the New York Times this week, Cognitive Dissonance in Monkeys – The Monty Hall Problem.

The Monty Hall Problem has struck again, and this time it’s not merely embarrassing mathematicians. If the calculations of a Yale economist are correct, there’s a sneaky logical fallacy in some of the most famous experiments in psychology.

The article and his two follow-up posts on his New York Times Blog, TierneyLab, contain the clearest explanations for the Monty Hall problem I’ve ever read. If after reading the article and posts (linked below) with comments, you still can’t quite get your head around this classic problem in probability, post a comment here and I’ll try to help.

Monty Halls Other Problems – TierneyLab – Science – New York Times Blog

The Psychology of Getting Suckered – TierneyLab – Science – New York Times Blog