Podcast for 31 October 2016

[MrBogosity]

[mp3]http://media.blubrry.com/bogosity/p/podcast.bogosity.tv/mp3s/BogosityPodcast-2016-10-31.mp3[/mp3]


Co-Host: Ibrahim Zallum

News of the Bogus:

• 1:24 - Dropbox, Google Drive and Microsoft OneDrive cloud services blocked in Turkey following leaks https://turkeyblocks.org/2016/10/08/google-drive-dropbox-blocked-in-turkey/
• 5:40 - Feds Walk Into A Building, Demand Everyone's Fingerprints To Open Phones http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2016/10/16/doj-demands-mass-fingerprint-seizure-to-open-iphones/
• 14:36 - Pushing to the very edge of safe Li-ion charging http://www.powerelectronicsnews.com/technology/pushing-to-the-very-edge-of-safe-li-ion-charging

25:50 - Biggest Bogon Emitter: University of Cape Town "Fallists" (nominated by BlameThe1st) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C9SiRNibD14

• Watch Leftist Students Say Science Is Racist and Should Be Abolished http://reason.com/blog/2016/10/14/watch-leftist-students-say-science-is-ra

37:18 - Idiot Extraordinaire: IoT device manufacturers https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/10/hacked-cameras-dvrs-powered-todays-massive-internet-outage/

This Week's Quote: "Planes fly. Cars drive. Computers compute. If you base medicine on science, you cure people. If you base the design of planes on science, they fly. If you base the design of rockets on science, they reach the moon. It works...bitches." —Richard Dawkins

[Dallas Wildman]

What's going on with the audio?  Just when you're about to get to the first topic @1:22 it just stops.

[evensgrey]

Actually, it isn't stopping, the player is declaring that it reached the full play time of the file (49:53) once it hits 1:22.

[MrBogosity]

I re-upped the file. See if it works now.

[evensgrey]

I'm not seeing any difference, but I might have the old version of the file stuck in a proxy somewhere.  (I don't know where, I'm accessing through TOR.)

On the subject of exploding LiON batteries, was there another round of exploding laptops back around 2000-2001?  I had a (small) part in the cleanup of the batch 10 years ago.  That was the result of a run of faulty cells that had improperly prepared chemicals in them that rendered them much more sensitive to overheating.  I started working for Dell at the end of 2006, when they were just finishing up the recall of the affected batteries.  Dell had some laptop models

Ibrahim is correct, Dawkins used a scenario of people believing different explanations of the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs based on where they lived was, IIRC, in the 1991 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, his famous "Growing Up In The Universe" series.  You can see them here:

[yt-list]PL24C9639BE2DD4223[/yt-list]

It's five hours long, so I'm not going to watch all of them looking for the quote in it.  (Definitely Dawkins, and this is the most likely one I can think of to have it).

[MrBogosity]

On the subject of exploding LiON batteries, was there another round of exploding laptops back around 2000-2001?

Yes, and they talk about that: how safety measures were put into place then, but those are no longer adequate.

[evensgrey]

Yes, and they talk about that: how safety measures were put into place then, but those are no longer adequate.

Yes, and don't forget this is also the precise problem those 'hoverboard' scooters had with their batteries, including the fact it was noted to happen when they were being charged.  This problem was probably made worse by the fact that it would be extremely hard to avoid squeezing the batteries if the frame of the device flexed too much.

The 2006 problem (which had some fatalities from exploding cell phones, and at least one truly spectacular laptop fire) was defective cells, but it's clear this was something entirely different as it affected two different manufacturer's batteries, and identical batteries in other devices do not do this.

I'm hoping this will spur further R&D on the fuel-cell battery replacements that use methanol.  They've been talked about for at least the last 15 years, but we never seem to actually see anything much hitting the market.

[Ibrahim90]

Yes, and don't forget this is also the precise problem those 'hoverboard' scooters had with their batteries, including the fact it was noted to happen when they were being charged.  This problem was probably made worse by the fact that it would be extremely hard to avoid squeezing the batteries if the frame of the device flexed too much.

The 2006 problem (which had some fatalities from exploding cell phones, and at least one truly spectacular laptop fire) was defective cells, but it's clear this was something entirely different as it affected two different manufacturer's batteries, and identical batteries in other devices do not do this.

I'm hoping this will spur further R&D on the fuel-cell battery replacements that use methanol.  They've been talked about for at least the last 15 years, but we never seem to actually see anything much hitting the market.

Methanol? sounds interesting, but isn't it highly flammable?

[MrBogosity]

Methanol? sounds interesting, but isn't it highly flammable?

So's lithium.

[evensgrey]

So's lithium.

In fact, metallic lithium (which the safety features in lithium batteries are designed to specifically prevent the formation of, as uncontrolled growth of metal insice a battery cell is a sure way to short it out over time) is far more combustible than ethanol is, as it spontaneously combusts on contact with such common substances as water or air.  We use high-purity methanol for a variety of purposes at the present time, mostly in industrial chemistry, but also as a vehicle fuel.  The risks are quite manageable.  In practice, it wouldn't be much more flammable than isopropyl alcohol, and I've got a perfectly safe bottle of that at 50% strength on the table beside my computer.  It's pretty much the ideal solvent for cleaning LCD displays.  I've bought it in purity up to 91%, and the main risk from that was inhaling to much of the fumes from it.  And the only reason we're talking about methanol instead of ethanol for this purpose is how nuts governments are about ethanol.

[MrBogosity]

In fact, metallic lithium (which the safety features in lithium batteries are designed to specifically prevent the formation of, as uncontrolled growth of metal insice a battery cell is a sure way to short it out over time) is far more combustible than ethanol is, as it spontaneously combusts on contact with such common substances as water or air.

And as the source explains, if the battery isn't engineered properly you can get lithium plating, where the lithium metal builds up to where it touches the two metal plates, causing a short. That's when you get the kaboom!

We use high-purity methanol for a variety of purposes at the present time, mostly in industrial chemistry, but also as a vehicle fuel.

Isn't it also used in antifreeze?

[evensgrey]

Isn't it also used in antifreeze?

It's an antifreeze used in windshield washer fluid (which is a major part of why the stuff is marked toxic).  It's pretty useless as engine coolant antifreeze because the main function of that antifreze is to raise the BOILING point of the coolant.  The antifreeze used there is mostly ethylene glycol (which is also quite toxic, and worse tastes sweet), although with water because pure ethylene glycol turns into lush at about 9 C.

[Dallas Wildman]

I re-upped the file. See if it works now.

Decided to watch/listen on YouTube, thanks anyway.

[Dallas Wildman]

It's an antifreeze used in windshield washer fluid (which is a major part of why the stuff is marked toxic).  It's pretty useless as engine coolant antifreeze because the main function of that antifreze is to raise the BOILING point of the coolant.  The antifreeze used there is mostly ethylene glycol (which is also quite toxic, and worse tastes sweet), although with water because pure ethylene glycol turns into lush at about 9 C.

Don't they add bittering agents?

[Ibrahim90]

Don't they add bittering agents?

Oh, it still tastes sweet--I know that from experience (it wasn't unusual to get drops of it on my lips when the bubble jar was opened for maintenance. This was used to prevent water from getting into our poly-flow, then to our gas detectors).

No, you color it a bright spooky green instead.