Rotundus.com

Antarctic Sea Ice Sets Another Record

An ice-melting scare story you think? Try this: "Antarctic sea ice set another record this past week, with the most amount of ice ever recorded on day 256 of the calendar year (September 12 of this leap year). ... NPR failed to mention anywhere in its article that Antarctic sea ice has been growing since satellites first began measuring the ice 33 years ago and the sea ice has been above the 33-year average throughout 2012." I've heard a lot more about the Artic ice which has apparently set a 33-year low.

Affective patterns using words and emoticons in Twitter

"Emoticons with noses are historically older. Since it is words that unite and distinguish clusters, this means that people who use old-fashion noses also use a different vocabulary—nose users don’t mention Bieber or omg"

Do bailed-out banks remain bad, while good banks behave better?

"The trauma and cost of a public rescue must surely teach the bank management concerned to behave in a more prudent manner, right?" As the article outlines, the answer to this question is no.

New Solar Panels Made with More Common Metals Could Be Cheaper and More Sustainable

Progress in building solar panels that don't require rare-earth elements to work.

That's the question I found myself asking after coming across an article entitled Computer glitch hid some CPS records for years, may have led to wrongful removals of children from families . Here are the first few paragraphs:

A computer glitch at Arizona's child-welfare agency kept some public records hidden from parents and their lawyers for more than 15 years.

The missing records could have led to children being improperly removed from their homes and stopped caregivers from filing civil claims against the state.

Arizona Department of Economic Security officials were notifying the state's 15 presiding Juvenile Court judges of the glitch on Friday. They also were sending notices to more than 30,000 people who received incomplete public records in the past two years but the state is unable to track or notify those who requested and received incomplete records before 2010.

How long has that bug been in there?

... the database system that tracks CPS cases, called CHILDS, had been programmed to print about one-third of the information considered public record under state and federal law. The programming error had been in place since the database was created in 1996.

So over the past 2.5 years, 30000 people were effected, but the system has been around since 1996 - 16 years. Assuming that there were roughly as many cases per year in Arizona that'd mean that close to 200,000 people might have been affected. Of course the actual number of kids abducted is likely to be a lot lower.

Compare though to "stereotypical kidnappings" - crimes which "involve someone the child does not know or a slight acquaintance who holds the child overnight, transports the child 50 miles or more, kills the child, demands ransom, or intends to keep the child permanently." There are an estimated 151 such cases/year across the US. To beat the 151 abductions/year nationally just in the state of Arizona you'd need to have only had about 1% of child removal orders overturned by the additional documentation this bug prevented from being released, a figure that doesn't seem implausible.

HT: Fathers and Families

In ‘Obesity Paradox,’ Thinner May Mean Sicker

"Diabetes patients of normal weight are twice as likely to die as those who are overweight or obese. That finding makes diabetes the latest example of a medical phenomenon that mystifies scientists. They call it the obesity paradox." A Canadian example: "In 2007, a study of 11,000 Canadians over more than a decade found that those who were overweight had the lowest chance of dying from any cause." The article seems to suggest fitness is a more important factor than something like BMI.

Cost of repatriating Luka Magnotta on a military plane: $375,000

Apparently the airlines wouldn't let him onboard even with a police escort. I'm still a little surprise that they couldn't charter a smaller business-jet at lower cost - the jet they sent over had a max capacity of 240 passengers in 2-class configuration as an airliner and actually used to belong to Canadian Airlines. What does it cost to operate a plane like that? "The flights, from an Alberta military base to Germany and back to Canada, spanned 23.9 hours at an estimated rate of $15,505 per hour — for a total cost of $370,570. The rate is an estimate that includes maintenance, hangar fees, crew salaries and fuel, which makes up $6,420 of the hourly cost, according to the Department of National Defence." I'm not sure how much an airline might save due to the efficiencies of having a larger number of aircraft.

Lessons From Zurich's Parking Revolution

"Since the late 1980s, Zurich has developed an alternative that's worth studying because it breaks all the rules of conventional transportation planning, and yet has been vitally important to the success of that city. ... The essence of Zurich's historic compromise of 1996 was that parking in the core of the city would be capped at the 1990 level, and that any new parking to be built would, on a one-to-one basis, replace the surface parking that blighted most squares in the city at the time. Today, almost all these squares are free of parking and have been converted to tranquil or convivial places for people to enjoy." This after the city in 1989 brought in a maximum ratio of parking per unit area restriction.

Number of children associated with obesity in middle-aged women and men: results from the health and retirement study.

"Among women, a 7% increase in risk of obesity was noted for each additional child, adjusting for age, race, household income, work status, physical activity, tobacco use, and alcohol use. Among men, a 4% increase in risk of obesity was noted for each additional child, adjusting for the same covariates."