Events

Geologist James Powell points out that the peer-review process keeps finding in favor of climate change: The most obvious criticsism—that this is an argumentum ad populum—only works if you misunderstand how science works. Every scientist has an implicit incentive to prove some other scientist wrong. You can make your career in science by showing that the received wisdom doesn't fit all the evidence. So the numbers in that pie chart have to raise eyebrows, even if the eyes under them have blinders on....

No, I don't mean "will we have to endure another six weeks of an election." I mean that Chicago today hit 17°C, not a record (22°C in 1982), but also more normal for mid-October than for the second day of meteorological winter. Tomorrow may be warmer. The Climate Prediction Center forecasts a warm December followed by more normal temperatures through March, so we might get a good Chicago winter anyway. Remember, though, that warm winters lead to warm summers (though not necessarily the reverse), so I...

I've just spent three hours debugging something caused by a single missing line in a configuration file. At 10th Magnitude, we've recently upgraded our framework and reference applications to the latest Windows Azure SDK. Since I'd already done it once, it didn't take too desperately long to create the new versions of our stuff. However, the fact that something works in an emulator does not mean it will actually work in production. So, last night, our CTO attempted to deploy the first application we...

Via Sullivan, a stunning and beautiful video comprising hundreds of still photos taken last fall:

A French appeals court has ruled that neither Continental nor mechanic John Taylor bears criminal responsibility for the 2000 Air France Concorde crash outside Paris: According to the original ruling, mechanic John Taylor fitted the wrong metal strip on a Continental DC-10. The piece ultimately fell off on the runway in Paris, puncturing the Concorde's tire. The burst tire sent bits of rubber flying, puncturing the fuel tanks, which started the fire that brought down the plane. On Thursday, Judge...

Yes, another link round-up: Telecoms companies are drooling over city-wide WiFi in Chicago, no doubt because of the city's, ah, generosity towards business. However, free universal WiFi is just one way that city density promotes economic growth. Publishers, who have enough problems, soon will have to release authors from 35-year-old contracts starting in January. Back to designing software...

Via Bruce Schneier, apparently some of the confetti thrown at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade last weekend came from the Nassau County Police: A closer look shows that the documents are from the Nassau County Police Department. The papers were shredded, but clearly not well enough. They even contain information about Mitt Romney's motorcade, apparently from the final presidential debate, which took place at Hofstra University in Nassau County last month. Most significant, the confetti strips...

10th Magnitude's CTO, Steve Harshbarger, explains how the cloud makes economics better by giving us more options: We know we could build every feature of a custom application from the ground up. We get ultimate control of the result, but often the cost or timeframe to do so is prohibitive. So as developers, we look to incorporate pre-built components to speed things along. Not only that, we strive for better functionality by incorporating specialized components that others have already invested far more...

Just now: The Supreme Court has rejected an appeal from the Cook County state's attorney to allow enforcement of a law prohibiting people from recording police officers on the job. The justices on Monday left in place a lower court ruling that found that the state's anti-eavesdropping law violates free speech rights when used against people who tape law enforcement officers. The law set out a maximum prison term of 15 years. Last May, a federal appeals court in Chicago ruled that the law “likely...

Via Sullivan, a new variety of bear has appeared in Canada because of climate change: One such sign [of environmental pressure on bears] is the emergence of a new creature in the polar bear’s range, first spotted in the wild in 2006 near Sachs Harbour, Northwest Territories. It’s got a long neck like a polar bear, but it’s smaller. It lies and behaves like a polar bear, but it has shoulder humps. The new creature has hairy paw soles like a polar bear, but its hair is mostly solid, with only patches of...