Posted by Benji Riggins on May 18, 2012 under Interesting Info | 
The 2012 hurricane season might get an early start, with the possibility of a tropical depression or storm in the western Caribbean some time next week, according to a cutting-edge forecast Tuesday by federal scientists.
The Climate Prediction Center predicted moderate chances that a tropical depression or a storm will form in the Caribbean during the last week of May.
Even if no storm develops, the prediction signals that the Atlantic is becoming primed for tropical activity as June 1, the official start of the six-month hurricane season, nears.
“It’s something to pay attention to. It might be a little earlier than normal,” said Eric Blake, a specialist with the National Hurricane Center.
While the two-week tropical hazard forecasts by the Climate Prediction Center are not very accurate now, meteorologists there are working with the National Hurricane Center to improve them. Within a few years, the two agencies plan to start making a joint two-week forecast, with the hurricane center taking the lead on the first week and the climate center handling the second, said Blake, who gave a presentation about the project at the Governor’s Hurricane Conference here on Tuesday.
He said the hurricane center began working with the climate center on the two-week outlook shortly after the busy 2005 hurricane season.
“The challenge has really been eliminating the false alarms,” Blake said.
The two-week outlook mostly relies on thunderstorm activity around the global tropics to predict where chances are increased for a tropical storm or depression to form. Clusters of thunderstorms occasionally move around the globe in a weather pattern called the Madden-Julian Oscillation or MJO. When the thunderstorms are over the Caribbean and Africa, the chances for tropical storms to develop in the Atlantic increase, Blake said.
But because weather is so variable, forecasts that extend beyond a week tend to have a large margin of error. The five-day forecast for tropical activity, however, is getting much better.
Blake said the hurricane center will experiment this year, in-house, with predicting the formation of tropical storms five days in advance. If the forecasts pan out, weather buffs, fishermen, shipping businesses, emergency planners and those in the oil and gas extraction industries could benefit from those forecasts beginning next year.
By Kate Spinner
Posted by Benji Riggins on May 11, 2012 under Interesting Info |
Traffic fatalities on U.S. roads in 2011 fell to their lowest level since federal safety regulators started counting in 1949, the regulators said on Monday.
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Posted by Benji Riggins on April 5, 2012 under Interesting Info |
The increasing use of electronic systems in automobiles is a challenge for federal safety regulators who often lack the technical expertise to monitor and investigate problems with the electronics, according to a new report from scientists.
The report from the National Research Council’s Transportation Research Board urges the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to anticipate and address the safety issues “explicitly and proactively.”
The report says NHTSA will need to become more familiar with how manufacturers design safety and security into electronics systems, identify and investigate system faults that may leave no physical trace, and respond convincingly when concerns arise about system safety.
The study was requested in the aftermath of the 2009-2010 reports of sudden acceleration problems in Toyota vehicles. NHTSA attributed these events to drivers pressing the gas pedal by mistake and to two other issues — pedals sticking or becoming entrapped by floormats — remedied in subsequent safety recalls.
Although NHTSA concluded that errant electronic throttle control systems (ETCs) were not a plausible cause, the agency asked for further investigation by NASA, which supported NHTSA’s original conclusion. The agency also commissioned the Research Council study for advice in handling future issues involving the safe performance of automotive electronics.
The Research Council report finds NHTSA’s decision to close its investigation of Toyota’s ETC justified on the basis of the agency’s investigations. However, the report says it is “troubling” that NHTSA could not convincingly address public concerns about the safety of automotive electronics.
The report says that NHTSA will need additional specialized technical expertise in order to respond effectively to claims of defects in the more complex electronic systems that are coming.
“It’s unrealistic to expect NHTSA to hire and maintain personnel who have all of the specialized technical and design knowledge relevant to this constantly evolving field,” said Louis Lanzerotti, Distinguished Research Professor at the New Jersey Institute of Technology and chair of the committee that wrote the report.
He said NHTSA could name a standing advisory committee to interact with industry and with technical experts in electronics to keep abreast of these technologies and oversee their safety. “Neither the automotive industry, NHTSA, nor motorists can afford a recurrence of something like the unintended acceleration controversy,” Lanzerotti said.
The report recommends that NHTSA establish a standing technical advisory panel composed of experts on software and systems engineering, human factors and electronics hardware. The panel should be consulted on technical matters that arise throughout regulatory reviews, defect investigation processes, and research needs assessments.
One of NHTSA’s main roles is to spot and investigate safety defects that escape the automotive manufacturers’ own safety assurance processes and to order safety recalls when necessary. The report recommends a strategic planning process to guide the agency’s fulfillment of these responsibilities as cars become more technologically complex. In the future, the possibility of electronics leading to increasingly autonomous vehicles presents a new set of safety challenges and will demand even more agency planning and foresight, according to the report.
The report also recommends that NHTSA review its Office of Defects Investigation (ODI) to determine the specific capabilities needed investigate flaws in electronics-intensive vehicles.
The report endorses NHTSA’s initiative requiring installation of event data recorders (EDRs) on all automobiles to inform safety investigations. EDRs should be commonplace in all new vehicles, the report concurs. It also endorses NHTSA’s plan to conduct research in layouts for gas and brake pedals and intuitive designs for keyless ignition systems. It recommends that this study be a precursor to a broader human factors research initiative in collaboration with the automotive industry to ensure that electronics systems and drivers interact safely.
The study was supported by the U.S. Department of Transportation’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council make up the National Academies. The Research Council is the principal operating agency of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Engineering.
Posted by Benji Riggins on March 8, 2012 under Interesting Info |
There were 81 on-duty firefighter fatalities in the United States as a result of incidents that occurred in 2011, a decrease from the 87 fatalities reported for 2010.
The 81 fatalities occurred in 33 states, one U.S. territory, and one overseas U.S. military facility, according to the United States Fire Administration (USFA).
Texas experienced the highest number of fatalities (seven). North Carolina experienced six firefighter deaths and was the only other state with five or more firefighter fatalities.
Heart attacks were responsible for the deaths of 48 firefighters (59 percent) in 2011, nearly the same proportion of firefighter deaths from heart attack or stroke (60 percent) in 2010.
Ten on-duty firefighters died in association with wildland fires, the lowest number of annual firefighter deaths associated with wildland fires since 1996.
Fifty-four percent of all firefighter fatalities occurred while performing emergency duties. Only three firefighters were killed in vehicle collisions.
Posted by Benji Riggins on February 14, 2012 under Interesting Info |
If you’re going to be on either end of a kiss this Valentine’s Day, you might want to consider smooching bare-lipped. Most lipstick contains lead.
Lead has been banned in paint since 1978 because of its toxicity at low levels, but it still shows up in small amounts in some of the best-selling lipstick brands.
The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which did an analysis of a study of lead in lipstick conducted by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, wants consumers to know that most of the 400 different lipsticks tested were positive for the substance.
“Recognizing that there is no safe level of lead exposure, we need to be protecting women and children from all levels of exposure,” said Stacy Malkan, co-founder of the campaign — a non-profit coalition of environmental- and cancer-prevention groups.
Malkan’s group wants the FDA to set a limit for how much lead lipstick can contain and to study whether there are any dangers to having the substance applied to human lips, particularly the lips of children and pregnant women. “We know that ingestion of lipstick happens. It gets into our bodies,” she said, noting that lead accumulates in people.
The group said that five of the nine lipstick brands with the most lead are sold by L’Oreal, the world’s largest cosmetics maker.
L’Oreal’s “Color Sensational” Pink Petal had the most lead of any lipstick tested at 7.19 parts per million. By comparison, children’s products sold in the U.S. are forbidden to have more than 100 parts per million of lead.
“The FDA’s independent study, which will be published in the May/June 2012 issue of the Journal of Cosmetic Science, confirms that lipsticks pose no safety concerns for the millions of women who use them daily,” L’Oreal said in a statement sent to Reuters. “The lead levels detected by the FDA in the study are also within the limits recommended by global public health authorities for cosmetics, including lipstick.”
The FDA, for its part, agreed there is no cause for alarm.
“The FDA did not find high levels of lead in lipstick,” FDA spokeswoman Tamara Ward said. “We developed and tested a method for measuring lead in lipstick and did not find levels that would raise health concerns.”
Still, Malkan said the government should take some more steps to ensure the safety of those who use lipstick. An advisory committee to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has taken a position that there is no safe level of lead for children. So, why asked Malkan should it be OK for their to be lead in lipstick? And, in particular, for certain brands to have more than others?
“There are no safety standards,” Malkan said.
So, if you’re still lead conscious, consider how you’ll handle your lips and those you’ll be sharing them with this Valentine’s Day.
By Mitch Lipka | February 14, 2012
Posted by Benji Riggins on February 11, 2012 under Interesting Info |
Okay, maybe you know a few of these, but chances are you’re going to learn something about cars and driving here. Use these facts to impress your friends.
· Windshield wipers were invented by a woman named Mary Anderson. She patented them in 1903.
· The nitromethane fuel used to power Top Fuel Dragsters costs $16 per gallon.
· The fastest known time for replacing a car engine is 42 seconds. Gareth Lloyd did so in 1985.
· Many vehicles have an arrow on the fuel gauge that points to which side of the vehicle the gas cap is on. Take a look!
· In Youngstown, OH, running out of gas is against the law. It’s considered a “Minor Misdemeanor.”
· The average automobile consists of more than 2,500 ft. of electrical wiring.
· On average, half an ounce of gas is used to start an automobile.
· The average fuel economy for a vehicle on the road was 14 miles per gallon in 1923.
· From a fuel economy perspective, it’s better to turn the air off at low speeds and open the windows. At highway speeds it’s more economical to use the air conditioning.
· US 20 is the longest road in the United States, spanning 3,365 miles from Boston, MA to Newport, OR.
