Source: (Wikipedia) Journey to the Center of the Earth. ... and the Project Gutenberg version of A Journey to the Interior of the Earth.
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
Monday, October 6, 2014
Radom pictures - mining
"... During 180 years it was
not superseded as the text-book and guide to miners and metallurgists,
for until Schlüter's great work on metallurgy in 1738 it had no equal.
That it passed through some ten editions in three languages at a period
when the printing of such a volume was no ordinary undertaking, is in
itself sufficient evidence of the importance in which it was held, and
is a record that no other volume upon the same subjects has equalled
since. A large proportion of the technical data given by Agricola was
either entirely new, or had not been given previously with sufficient
detail and explanation to have enabled a worker in these arts himself to
perform the operations without further guidance. Practically the whole
of it must have been given from personal experience and observation, for
the scant library at his service can be appreciated from his own
Preface. Considering the part which the metallic arts have played in
human history, the paucity of their literature down to Agricola's time
is amazing. No doubt the arts were jealously guarded by their
practitioners as a sort of stock-in-trade, and it is also probable that
those who had knowledge were not usually of a literary turn of mind;
and, [Pg iii]on the other hand, the small army of writers prior to his time
were not much interested in the description of industrial pursuits..."
Friday, October 3, 2014
Thursday, October 2, 2014
Good luck with that...
Heard on NPR this morning that its very unlikely that Ebola cases will make it to the U.S. Apparently there are a number of checks in place to ensure that this does not happen. Thus:
"... One of the things that CDC has done in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Guinea
and Lagos is to work with the airport's authorities. So 100 percent of
the individuals getting on planes are screened for fever before they get
on the plane. And if they have a fever, they're pulled out of the line,
assessed for Ebola and don't fly unless Ebola is ruled out....
Airport personnel in those West African nations are trained by the CDC
and the World Health Organization to look for signs of illness in
travelers and question them about their health and whether they've been
exposed to Ebola. And CDC spokeswoman Christine Pearson says they're
also taking temperatures.
They do have what
we call non-contact thermometers, which are infrared thermometers that
they can read the person's temperature with their forehead.
Some question how thorough those airport personnel in West Africa
really are at screening travelers. But if a sick passenger were to slip
through, airlines already have the legal right to deny boarding to
anyone with a serious communicable disease. If a passenger should become
sick during flight, flight attendants and other airline-personnel have
the training to deal with that, too. Perry Flint is a spokesman for the
International Air Transport Association.
Airlines
have well-established procedures, guidance materials developed with the
World Health Organization and the International Civil Aviation
Organization for maintenance crew, for cabin crew, for cleaning crew in
terms of dealing with an outbreak.
Once international travelers land in the
U.S., Customs and Border Protection officers, who have also received
special Ebola training, are the next line of defense.
CBP personnel review all travelers entering the United States
for general overt signs of illnesses. It's through a visual observation
at all U.S. ports of entry, including all U.S. airports that service
international flights..."
Hmm, so the system depends on screeners at the airport of origin, the airlines, and CBP. Well, in this case the man apparently was not sick when he left Liberia. According to the Director of the CDC: "... Ebola doesn't spread before someone gets sick. And he didn't get sick
'till four days after he got off the airplane. So we do not believe
there is any risk to anyone who was on the flight at that time..."
Well, unless the man contracted Ebola in the United States, he clearly was infected in Liberia but did not get "sick" (i.e. did not show any symptoms) for four to five days (one day of travel plus four days after he deplaned). This would seem to shoot a big hole in the theory that the airport screeners will prevent those with Ebola from traveling. And this doesn't even take into consideration possibilities such as faulty screening, venal screeners (who might be bribed to allow someone to pass), and a host of other possibilities.
Overall, there's no reason to panic, but certainly no one should think this approach is guaranteed to work without a good helping of luck! All of the interventions are rather low reliability, the "swiss cheese" model applies, and when the holes line up....
And now subtraction...
The September 13th, 2014 blog entry 'Eh?' discussed multiplication and the 'skip counting' of the "Common Core." '6 Steps to Subtract 2 Numbers: Common Core Homework in 1 Photo' takes a look at subtraction by 'counting up.'One wonders what the method is when subtracting a larger number from a smaller one!
Random chart - spend spread
"Highlights
- In 2012, the top 1 percent ranked by their health care expenses accounted for 22.7 percent of total health care expenditures with an annual mean expenditure of $97,956. Overall, the top 50 percent of the population ranked by their expenditures accounted for 97.3 percent of overall health care expenditures, while the lower 50 percent accounted for only 2.7 percent of the total.
- Individuals age 65 and older were characterized by substantially less concentrated levels of health care spending relative to their younger counterparts. Alternatively, the elderly had the highest mean levels of health care expenditures relative to younger population subgroups at the top quantiles of the expenditure distribution.
- The top 5 percent of the uninsured population under age 65 ranked by their health care expenses accounted for 58.9 percent of the health care expenditures incurred by this subpopulation with an annual mean of $14,565. Conditioned on insurance coverage status, the uninsured had the lowest annual mean expenses.
- The top 5 percent of individuals with four or more chronic conditions accounted for 29.7 percent of health care expenditures for this subpopulation with an annual mean of $78,198. Based on chronic condition status, persons with four or more chronic conditions had the lowest concentrated levels of health care expenditures and higher annual mean expenses at the top quantiles of the expenditure distribution."
Wednesday, October 1, 2014
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