Saturday, August 20, 2011

Link Dump - 20 August 2011

Crime:

People tend to overestimate their own intelligence. Funny story at the beginning of the article.

There are other articles out there that are better on one aspect of it, but this is by far the best overview of the spread and damage done by the Stuxnet worm.


Gives some great perspective on how the Wikileaks Afghan War Logs got leaked. Also, nice to read the unedited logs to get the whole perspective (although it takes some skipping around).

Anthrax killer still unknown?
FBI mucks up the case yet again.


Lee Zurik is lazy
So sez Aaron Bennet



Original article. Well worth a read. Great investigative journalism.





Economics:

Answer: get some practical experience. In the US for engineers, the Senior Project is looked at very closely by employers.



China seeks to displace Korea as the king of the shipbuilders. Korea will start concentrating on higher-value ships (LNG tankers, for example) as China's government pumps money into the shipbuilding industry to build capacity.


Note the article focuses only on Mexican immigrants (not other Latin American countries). Economic progress and less corruption keeps Mexico's best and brightest home.



Discussion of choosing between technical track and managerial track positions. I don't necessarily agree with everything that's presented in the article, but the comments at the end are also good.









Shocking article. Also mentions the USCG/MMS hearings in New Orleans.


Energy

Also check out the 'Chats with nuclear dad' on the Georneys blog. A PhD candidate in geology interviews her nuclear engineer dad on Fukushima and other nuclear topics.


Lots of the early missions are still classified (NRO/NSA satellite launches, mostly) and there were some incidents that were never widely known.

Young Men and Fire
The Practical Pyromaniac, reviewed by Adam Savage



Retrain Shuttle workers to inspect Offshore?
Not as crazy an idea as it soundsh




Note that many major oil companies have negative reserve replacement ratios and don't even have a plan to reverse that trend; they'd rather live high on the hog on booked reserves. If you look at oil patch history, on the long run, it's cheaper to find and book barrels today rather than wait until tomorrow....

Squirrels changing trees: Republican edition
MMS tuns to BOEMRE. Now it's BOEM, OESS, and ONRR.



If I ever become dictator, everyone will drive stickshifts. It will stop distracted driving, lower energy consumption (and hence oil prices), and be safer.



From the Houston Chronicle, with hilarious appeal to 'stop sending us those crazy emails'


War:
A history of the Littoral Combat Ship



Syrian soldier's view on being ordered to shoot at his neighbors.





Politics:

For lesson in shared sacrifice, send Congress to boot camp - CNN.com
Lt. General Russel Honoré thinks Congress should be sent to boot camp: "Put them in tents with no air conditioning, have Army drill sergeants teach them teamwork and physical sacrifice. When they recognize their responsibility to the people of America, they can return to D.C."





List of books read by Obama over the past ~2 years.


3 comments:

oyster said...

Link "Dump"?

More like, "Link Treasure Trove!"

A lot of these are fantastic that I missed.

Clay said...

Top hits on the list:

* As Newsrooms Shrink, PR firms fill gap

* The Soldier's View is a nice find. Very unusual.

* Yahoo Sports' Charles Robinson did a FANTASTIC investigative reporting job. You simply must read his article before any other about the Miami scandal. (Speaking of which, I'm watching "The U" on 30 for 30 right now).

Clay said...

Also, the Obama/Soros/Petrobras article is sort of hilarious. When even an oil industry-rag tells you you're crazy, you're orbiting Pluto.