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Global guessing

After reading about the new things that I might encounter in InTech in "Talk to Me" (InTech, January 2006), I started into the issue expecting to see a lot of innovative stuff ... and I did. Let me compliment you on the transformation that has taken place. Keep up the good work.

Then I got to page 11 ("Automation Update") and the fairy tale about global warming. I think I've seen most of the bilge that's been written in the last few years about this horrible Armageddon that Earth's populace is bringing on itself. There are several fallacies inherent with all the so-called scientific community's guesses, which they give an air of correctness to because of the brotherhood from which they come.

One can start with the age of this piece of real estate (on the order 3 billion years or so) and the truth that we have been taking comparable data for maybe 10O of those years. Does anyone believe that a reliable long-term model can be built on a data base of such short duration? On page 11, Govindasamy BaIa gives a predicted outcome in the year 2300. So who's going to be around to challenge his great, great, great-grandsons about how their ancestor was wrong 294 years prior. I can guarantee BaIa will not even get a footnote in the scientific journals of that day.

Among the remarks he makes, the first sentence is a tip-off of what's to come. His brethren in the petroleum-predicting arena said that we are going to run out of the black stuff in a few years. When I first got into practice about 50 years ago, there were oil seers who told us of the "end" by the 1970s, then the 1980s, then 2017 ... you get the idea! These folks just don't know. But the global warming story said, "If humans continue to use fossil fuels at their current pace for the next several centuries ..." Hey! Thought we were running out.

The prediction of ocean levels rising by seven meters must be next in craziness. I have seen a calculation that assumes that if all land-borne ice and snow melted, the oceans would rise somewhat less than a meter. I assume Bala's explanation would also talk of thermal expansion, but that too would account for something less than a meter rise and would require every drop of ocean water to come to the same temperature-not very likely.

Maybe it's time taxpayers stop paying for Lawrence Livermore Lab lunacy. Let them stick to the job they were initially created for and stay out of the writing of science-fiction for four year olds.

Barry J. Hildebrand,

Rancho Palos Verdes, Calif.

Resources on the Web

In Kenneth Witzel's letter "More on RTD Needed" in the January InTech, Witzel requests more information on the advantages of the RTD methods versus a solid-state or semiconductor type sensor for H^sub 2^ specific. Witzel asks who developed the technology and who currently supplies it. Regarding this topic:

Response to Witzel:

Thanks for your interest, but InTech publishes what they get and do not necessarily understand it or what further details are needed without serious feedback like yours. I hope they reread your letter and hear your message loud and clear

There are plenty of good sources and many great ones on the Web, some at vendor Web sites, others at tech resources and specialty sites. They are not necessarily widely visited Web pages. (We hope to change that.)

That's why in 1997, after 10 years of developing and teaching ISA courses on Temperature Measurement, I recognized the power of the Web and started "About Temperature Sensors" (www.temperatures.com). I couldn't provide my students in a two-day or three-day course, a fraction of the information readily available on the Web in 1997. So, I began cataloging it and making freely available on my Web site as a part time activity.

In 2001, my Web site became a full time job, and in 2002, we started a second Web site, www.TempSensor.net. The scope of news and in depth technical articles had grown enormously, and it still is growing. The Web search engines, including Google, weren't getting the truly interesting tech information. It is buried on various Web sites, and it still takes a human to ferret it out and organize it.

With www.TempSensor.net, we brought the ability for people to freely submit articles they found worthwhile and for vendors to enter their own PR and new product info.

We have since begun a more broadlybased effort at www.Measurement Devices.com to cover other measurement technologies, practices, and resources. It is still in its infancy but free and open, like www.TempSensor.net. However with support and income from advertisers, we are making good inroads into organizing all the "good stuff" we can find.

Response to Sheble:

I don't think your response to Witzel was very thoughtful and considered. He understood the article to which he referred, but he asked for more and didn't get much. You must be too busy

G. Raymond Peacock,

ISA Life Senior Member and Temperatures.com, Inc. president