In a speech, Greta Thunberg stated: “all you can talk about is money and fairy tales of eternal economic growth”. Continue reading “Greta Thunberg was Wrong about Economic Growth”
Category: Science
What is 1 + 1? It depends who you ask!
Donald Trump
“Glad you asked me this question. I am a very stable genius and math is one of my specialties. When I was on the Howard Stern show, he asked me a very difficult math question, “What is 17 times 6?”.
The Covid-19 Pandemic May be Over Sooner Than You Think
Covid-19 has spread throughout the world and people and governments are going to extraordinary lengths to contain it.
Two of the first nations to experience the pandemic are China and South Korea. In both cases, the number of new casualties has dropped ( in China there have been no new cases at all yesterday – 23-March 2020). In other countries, including Canada and the U.S., the number of new cases is still rising.
We can look at the data for Canada and the U.S. and compare it to South Korea and see if there are similarities and if it can suggest how long the outbreak will last. Continue reading “The Covid-19 Pandemic May be Over Sooner Than You Think”
What will it take for Canada to eliminate its use of fossil fuels?
- Gasoline/diesel vehicles will have to go electric
- Railways will have to be electrified
- Heating will have to go electric
If this were to happen, Canada’s demand for electricity will increase. In this blog, the increase in electricity generation capacity is estimated.
The results show that Canada will require 31 new nuclear plants or 202 new hydro plants or 1413 new wind farms or 15167 solar plants or a combination of the above
First look at current consumption of energy from fossil fuels in Canada:
- Coal 33.2 106 tonnes/yr
- Petroleum products 1.9 mmbbl/d
- Natural gas 8.9 Bcf/d
Continue reading “What will it take for Canada to eliminate its use of fossil fuels?”
What Does “Peer Reviewed” Mean?
Articles about scientific matters (especially climate change) refer to studies with “peer reviewed” papers. Most readers assume that this means that the findings have been endorsed by qualified scientists and that they can be considered reliable.
The reality is that this is actually a low standard and is not an accurate guide to the reliability of the results. Continue reading “What Does “Peer Reviewed” Mean?”
The Galactic Diet – The No-Pain Weight Loss Program
This is a plan I have devised and used for over 6 years. It involves:
- No calorie counting
- No special foods
- No special exercise regimen
I have studied at Cambridge, London, Caltech and Calgary. None of these studies were in Nutrition, but all were in Physics. If Al Gore can talk about Climate Change, I can talk about diet.
The Principles for the “Galactic Diet” are:
- Peter Drucker’s statement “You can’t manage what you don’t measure”.
- Losing weight is a simple energy balance – energy in is less than energy expended
- Reduce energy in by reducing quantities eaten/drunk
- Increase energy out by increased exercise
Continue reading “The Galactic Diet – The No-Pain Weight Loss Program”
Is the Number of Papers on a Topic a Good Indicator of its Importance?
The Wikipedia entry on “Global Cooling” dismisses the idea that it was the prevailing view in the 1970’s by showing the numbers of papers on cooling versus the number on warming. Does this truly support the author’s claim?
In this post, I describe a fictitious experiment and then draw up a non-complete list of papers that could be produced from the experiment.
I then show a real-life example of this sort of “paper-churning”. Continue reading “Is the Number of Papers on a Topic a Good Indicator of its Importance?”