Get your kids an Ant Mine this Christmas!

A friend recently gave my kids an ant mine kit as a present. Upon getting it my kids got so excited that they wanted me to put it together immediately. So the following night, I set to work. The first task was to make the plaster of paris nest. I followed the instructions the best I could but ended up breaking the thing. It broke my little boy's heart. Yesterday, I bought new plaster of paris so I could continue the work. My second attempt was another failure. I put too much plaster into the water making it too viscous. The third attempt was just right.
After 45 minutes, I took extra-care in taking the nest out of the mold. And set it out to dry overnight.

This morning, my son bugged me to finish the work. Together with my daughter, we attach the plastic face and tube on to the nest. After doing so, we started catching ants. I didn't realize catching ants and putting them into the ant mine was so difficult! They ran so fast! I had to catch 1 or 2 at a time with a spoon and put them into the feeding hole. After getting about 25, my kids finally had the pleasure of looking at their new pets.

This toy makes a perfect gift for kids and kids-at-heart. It makes you appreciate the complexity of the ants' biome and teaches us about the reality of a living planet. Ants also make low maintenance pets compared to fish or dogs!

The kit is part of a series of interconnected biome kits from Treetoys.

photo taken from www.fizzicseducation.com.au

Is Climate Change Real?

I recently had a discussion with my wife about climate change. She was testing whether or not I accepted the validity of the problem as a mere result of Al Gore's movie. She wanted to know if I went through the data and formed my conclusions from it. Fortunately my background in Physics, compelled me to that previously.

Why do I believe that Climate Change is real? The empirical data shows it. Since the middle of last century, an increase of atmospheric CO2 has been recorded. This has been correlated to an increase in global average temperature in the same period. Current computational studies have concluded this as due to human induced greenhouse gas emissions. This is stated in the Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Some say correlation doesn't mean anything but rather a scientific way to say its a coincidence. Having worked in the semiconductor industry, I've considered statistical signals as trigger conditions for action. When we see violations of the rules of statistical process control, we jump and work on finding root cause. We would then work on establishing cause or effect by an experiment using DOE or Taguchi techniques. Ultimately, this leads to finding an effective solution. The climate and CO2 data have definitely violated the 7 point rule a long time ago.

Establishing root cause is a bit more difficult than a typical engineering problem. The system under consideration is a complex one. I encounter blogs that conclude global warming is a hoax because of the absence of a deterministic equation relating CO2 and Global Mean Temperature. If I had a purely engineering background I would also make the same conclusion. This is where physics kicks in.

Complex systems do not follow simple equations but rather the physics of chaotic sytems. A good example would be fractals where you find repeating order in the midst of what appears to be random. Chaotic systems move toward attractor equations rather than being governed by simple equations . By understanding the attractors of a system, one can do the variable variations needed to study a phenomenon numerically. The resulting model is then calibrated with empirical data. Once a model is developed, it is published and reviewed by experts all over the world to see if the scientific process was followed regardless of the results. This is the check and balance culture intrisic in the scientific community.

The reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is the work of people from 130 countries. It involves 450 lead authors, 800 contributing authors and 2500 technical reviewers. I have talked to a member of the panel and learned the high level of conservativeness in reporting the data and making conclusions. As an example, their models do not include the impact of land based ice sheets to sea level rise. To accuse this work as consipiracy would be naive.

To end this blog, I would like you to consider your own views on Climate Change. If you find it difficult to accept, ask yourself why? Is it really because of the science or is it because it threatens your current way of life. You can always deny something but it will never affect its validity.

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Socialism?

The US presidential campaign has brought up socialism recently. Sparked by Sen Obama's discussion with Joe the plumber. I have lived in the US, so I'm not surprised as to why this would be an issue. Western European countries appear quite successful with the model where everything is laissez faire. The benefits would be having virtually free services, the downside would be high taxes. I had a discussion with a European friend and she was mentioning that she initially found the US system merciless. As she spent more time in the US, she found that more opportunities were open because their system.

Does the US really need a socialist style system? Does it make sense to tax high income earners to redistribute the wealth among the rest? I think it would be a big mistake. I have been pushing for a consumption based taxation rather than the current income based scheme. It is very absurd that productive members of society are taxed for the sake of the unproductive. I think it is the government's job to motivate and enable the unproductive to produce wealth. It is also the government's job to ensure new players have a level playing field in producing that wealth.

I am a citizen and resident of Philippines. Our country has had our forays into socialism in the form of land reform. Yep, land was distributed. Did it work? Because it was a "dole out', farmers borrowed money for the farm (using the land as collateral) but ended up getting in debt for buying appliances. After decades of land reform we can say it is a failure. We used to have sufficient rice, today we import it. As an NGO worker, the best practice we have in any project is to ensure the beneficiaries have some cash or sweat equity.

From my perspective, a lot of Americans don't know what poverty is. I consider American consumption habits much wasteful. I know because we buy the "junk" shipped to our country. How can we explain a nation with obesity as a major problem. Where the poor have cars! This is not poverty. Instead of socialism, I think a key solution to the current economic crisis would be a re-evaluation of . The root cause of the problem is consumption and here lies the solution. Income should be free and untaxed but consumption should be regulated. This would even go well with the proposed carbon taxation scheme to resolve the climate crisis.

Two cents from a Filipino across the ocean.